


Transitions

by amuk



Series: Unpacking [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Break Up, Established Relationship, F/M, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Moving, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 06:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything changes, Sasuke knows that, but this is one thing he didn’t expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transitions

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Day 3 // change
> 
> Takes place before the previous drabble.

_And this too shall pass._

 

He shuts the book abruptly, ignoring the bookmark that falls to the ground.

 

Everything changes. Sasuke knows that (knows it all too well, has seen faces age and disappear like the dying glow of embers on a cool summer night). Without a second thought, he drops the book onto the table top.

 

Somewhere behind him, he hears the clunks of boxes, the steady clink of china as they are nestled against each other. There is the soft rustle of cloth and the crinkle of newspapers as unseen hands continue to wrap the fragile dishes.

 

Around him, the apartment is a mess, a mixture of boxes and furniture. Some are half-open, their contents haphazardly overflowing onto the hardwood floor below; others sealed shut, their tomes hidden from prying eyes.

 

A whole life is being filled in those boxes. It’s being crammed and shoved, in quick, hurried movements, packed away with soft sighs and tired eyes.

 

He can’t remember when he last slept properly. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees a brush of pink, a back hunched over another cardboard box.

 

Looking at her, he doubts she can remember either.

 

“There,” Sakura announces, quietly (and she’s never this quiet, this silent. There is a void between them, a gap that is eating away at the concept of ‘us’.  Where a head used to lean against his shoulder in the late afternoon, sleepy, she now sits ramrod straight, eyes looking everywhere but at him.)  “That should be the last of it.”

 

She gets up, dusting her pants self-consciously, before picking up her bag. “I should be back in about an hour to take them away.”

 

“Naruto’s van?” He isn’t quite sure why he asked that.

 

Startled, she faces him. “Well, his and Kiba’s. Looks like I have more things than I expected.” She gives a laugh, the bags under her eyes more pronounced as her face almost crumples, almost collapses into the tears he knows she’s holding behind. Instead, Sakura gives a weak smile, and slings the traveller’s bag on her left shoulder. “Anyways, I’m going now.”

 

It’s been three weeks since she’d announced she was leaving, six since things went horribly wrong, four months since everything started to break visibly. It’d probably been happening longer than that, cracks in the patchwork seams that held them together.

 

Already, he can see the gaps in the mantle pieces, the missing pictures, the signs that there used to be two occupants instead of one. She takes her coat out of the closet as she leaves, closing the door softly behind her.

 

At his feet rests her bookmark and he picks that up, carefully inserting it to the page she was on last. All things change, he knows, but he was foolish to think that he was one of those things.

 

If Sasuke could change, she’d still be here, her shoes nestled in the shoe rack as she relaxed on the couch, her fingers twined in his.


End file.
